SHP Forums

Part two of the SVGA era. First-person adventures and live action full motion video games. Direct Sierra games only. I don't count Urban Runner from Coktel, for instance.

I'm going with Lighthouse. Even though I've only played the beginnings of these games (except for SWAT which I loathed) Lighthouse seemed the most interesting at the beginning and really made me want to play through it. Great aura of intrigue and mystery. Of course, the rest of the game could be utter crap and I wouldn't know. Nevertheless, I pick it because that's all I have to go on.

Without a doubt, the first Phantasmagoria.

I have such an incredible memory playing this with (my soon to be wife), my best friend, and his wife. They had housed us for a few months, when we first moved back to San Diego when Phantasmagoria had come out. And the four of us played the game together, and really enjoyed it. There was nothing creepier than when the crib rocked and the baby cried. We were all like, "Whoa, that's freaking creepy!"

Tough call: GK2 has some of the best writing in a live action game, and the opera of course. Phantas scared the crap out of me so I didn't dare to play, but when I conquered my fears I had a lot of fun getting chased. Phantas 2 has its charms, primarily manifested in Trevor. Lighthouse had that puzzle box I loved. But Lighthouse also has the annoying robot girl, Phantas 2 has too much silliness, Phantas 1 is effective but occasionally silly, GK2 has the magnificent plot hole and highly annoyiing leads...

So I go with the game for which I once cut open the sofa in order to to salvage it, with the fantastic pentominoes and the glorious Pinball puzzle. Go Shivers!

Once again, do I really have to say where my vote went?

AndreaDraco wrote:Once again, do I really have to say where my vote went?

Of course not. We know you love SWAT the most.

Collector wrote:

AndreaDraco wrote:Once again, do I really have to say where my vote went?

Of course not. We know you love SWAT the most.

Crap! He said it before I did!

I'll go with GK2 here. I like the Phantasmagoria games, but those ones seem to favor shock value over story-telling. I'll need to replay the Shivers games, and I haven't even touched SWAT, RAMA or Lighthouse.

Datadog wrote:I'll go with GK2 here. I like the Phantasmagoria games, but those ones seem to favor shock value over story-telling. I'll need to replay the Shivers games, and I haven't even touched SWAT, RAMA or Lighthouse.

Phant 2 seems to prefer Shock Value, I agree.

But the first one?

I thought it had some good story telling for a horror game.

Tawmis wrote: I thought it had some good story telling for a horror game.

It was bit cliched, though. On the other side, GK2 is awesome in every respect

AndreaDraco wrote:

Tawmis wrote: I thought it had some good story telling for a horror game.

It was bit cliched, though. On the other side, GK2 is awesome in every respect

It may have been cliched a bit, but considering it was one of their first ventures in FMV, I don't think they could have gotten all crazy. Compare Phant1 to Phant2 as to what you see (Kurtis going to Hell and such). I think keeping the simplicity of the horror, is what really did it for me. And perhaps why I dislike Phant2, which I have only played once, because I felt no inclination to ever play it again.

GK2 was excellent. I won't argue there. But Phant1, as I mentioned, aside from being an entertaining game, also has a lot of sentimental value (which GK2 does not, since I played that one alone; as opposed to Phant1, which I played with three others).

Believe it or not, I voted for PQ:SWAT.

Now before anyone goes ballistic, the reason for that is it's the ONLY game on this list that I've completed. I've played some of GK2 (when it first came out) and I barely tried Phantasmagoria. The rest I've never even played.

At the time, I also did like SWAT. It wasn't the PQ series I'd grown up on, but it was fun in its own way. I much preferred SWAT 3, however.

Tawmis wrote:But the first one?

I thought it had some good story telling for a horror game.

It's been a long time since I played the first one, but the only things I really remember from it are the gruesome murders, the rape scene, and the gore - and not so much the story behind why these things are happening. GK2 has a fair bit of shock value too, but there were many other things in the story that left a more positive impression on me.

Datadog wrote:

Tawmis wrote:But the first one?
I thought it had some good story telling for a horror game.

It's been a long time since I played the first one, but the only things I really remember from it are the gruesome murders, the rape scene, and the gore - and not so much the story behind why these things are happening. GK2 has a fair bit of shock value too, but there were many other things in the story that left a more positive impression on me.

Well, for thegruesome murders...they're never shown, only mentioned and/read about... from what I remember...the rape scene, was to show the demonic thing (very common in most 'demon/devil possession' type movies)... and thegore... the only gore I remember, is the scene where if you die in the chair, and the final scene...other than that, I don't remember gore? To me, this was Sierra making an "R" rated interactive Horror Movie, kind of like how King's Quest VII and Torin's Passage were interactive cartoons.

I remember a lot of stuff involving women tied to chairs and screaming. But like I said, I'd have to play it again.

So you don't remember the death scene where the demon tears your face in half? To this day I can't get that picture out of my head.

I think GK2 is the clear winner. Onto the post-SCI era! http://www.sierrahelp.com/forums/viewto ... f=2&t=2617